The construction of modern multi-floor buildings often requires temporary barriers to be erected about the building's perimeter on each floor until the exterior walls or cladding can be installed. Such barriers help to ensure the safety of construction personnel and also the safety of passersby on the ground through preventing construction material and debris from being blown or otherwise falling from a building while under construction. Ideally such barriers should be capable of withstanding a predetermined load and should be both easy to install and easy to dismantle. Commonly, the barriers are either supported between the concrete or wooden floor systems and the ceiling system directly above or through fastening directly to the floor system. In multi-floor high-rise construction, safety barriers will typically be moved from floor to floor as the building is constructed.
Others have proposed a wide variety of different support posts and safety barriers for use in such applications. Most commonly, the posts are installed between the floor system and a ceiling directly above, and are either tensioned in place or held through any one of a wide variety of mechanical fastening mechanisms. Once the posts are installed, sections of safety barrier or safety fence are then commonly wired, clipped or otherwise fastened to, or between, the posts in order to create an integral safety barrier system about the perimeter of the building. While such systems in most cases provide an adequate barrier and protection for those working at height on the construction site, as well as individuals passing by on the ground, they can in many cases be laborious to install, requiring an installer to “set” posts in place and then subsequently move barriers or fence panels into position and secure them to the posts. In addition, the physical size of the fence panels (which can often approach 3 feet by 8 feet) can at times present difficulties or obstacles with respect to the movement of the panels from place to place. The sheer size of the panels can make them in some instances awkward to manoeuvre within a new building under construction, within the surrounding jobsite, and on trucks and trailers that move the panels from one job site to another.